Liberty Satin Drape Blouse

On the day before Christmas Eve I decided that I should sew something to wear on Christmas Day (ok I should have planned this earlier!). I searched for an easy pattern which hopefully can be sewn within a day. I chose this light cowl dress pattern (no. 123) from Burda’s 01/2013 magazine which can be made up as a dress or a blouse.

Burda 01/2013’s light cowl dress

The blouse version – not my favourite styling at all but a different fabric could work

I used a Liberty Silk Satin fabric which I got from Goldhawk Road back in summer. It seems perfect as the dress version requires 1.5m of fabric only which is what I have with this silk print.

Liberty Silk Satin Fabric – Although it has a denim look but it’s really soft

And here’s the finished blouse (it’s not a dress but I’ll explain later).

The finished silk satin blouse

I cut everything to the dress length and followed the pattern instruction which is surprisingly clear. The front drape has a folded in facing which is sewn to the shoulder seams. Instead of using fusible stay tape as per the instructions, I used strips of selvedge as shoulder stay tapes. This gave a softer result compared to the fusible method.

The shoulder seam – the front facing is stitched to the shoulder seam. The pinked fabric strip is the selvedge stay tape.

The back neck edge is finished with a single folded bias binding and topstitching from the right side of the fabric.

The back neck edge with topstitching on the right side

I tried on the dress half-way and realised that the silk fabric tends to cling to my bottom, i.e. not a nice look at all so I cut off 10″ measured from the hem and left it as a blouse.

The hems are finished using the hairline hem method while the seam allowances are double stitched, pinked and hand over-casted so the seams remains soft and drapery.

Thanks! The silk fabric is really slippery so I thought turn and stitch wouldn’t be easy without hand basting. Hand overcast probably took slightly less time as I didn’t need to baste the seams before machining.

This is lovely! I so appreciate seeing how you finish the insides of your garments. I always think I can finish things much faster than I actually can, so I understand why this wasn’t completed by Christmas! However, the extra hand-sewing and fine-finishing makes a beautiful blouse even better.